So I think another hiatus is coming. A lot of people are fine with it because of all the episodes were dropped; nice to see them becoming so cooperative, right? Maybe they're like me; I don't get enough of the high anymore to feel the withdrawals. Though this does give me the chance to write about something that I've been thinking of for a while now.
This is a concern about Steven Universe that has nudged at me more than once in the past. Even though the show is so known for how much different it acts over others, how well it writes characters, this seems like a very likely scenario. Really, Peridot is set up to fall into this rut, so the risk is obviously there. Though (the 'f' word) is very common in media these days.
Firstly, Peridot's drastic change in character was good, but is sometimes concerning if you consider how quickly she could change again. At first, Peridot was an interesting but not very fleshed out villain. Her real emotional core came during her change into a good guy, her redemption, which showed us more of Peridot's emotional side and taught her how her behavior effected others. Now, post that, Peridot's niche is turning into comic relief.
And I mean comic relief alone. If Beta, Earthlings, and Kindergarten Kid shows us anything, it is that Peridot is somewhat regressing. She spends most of her time being goofy, cracking jokes, and saying unintentionally offensive things to the others. In Beta and Kindergarten Kid, Peridot manages to insensitively offend Amethyst twice, and coming after 'Too Far' it comes off as a regression.
Peridot no longer is around to learn about the others, so she now is mostly there as a joke. Sometimes it works, like in Beta, but sometimes it's just too blunt, as in the Kindergarten Kid. Also, someone whose so intelligent tends to have more than a couple of stupid moments, which are only sometimes actually fun to watch.
Even after the Cluster, Peridot seems more unable to hold her own than ever. Currently, this is not a big problem, and Peridot is still enjoyable. I'm not saying she isn't. What I am saying is that Peridot is in the danger zone of flanderization. Take for example another quirky character who was well faceted, but sort of kooky; Jackie from Roseanne.
Peridot and Jackie share a lot of similarities. They are both smart but have their clueless moments. They are somewhat independent, but show dependent traits in times of need. They are mostly comic relief, but have a lot of heart as well. They also are close, like a sibling and a sibling, to the main character. This allows them to come along to learn the moral.
Though we all know what happened to Jackie. She went from being a strong character to being a babbling idiot, barely able to form a functional sentence, only there to cause problems and to point and laugh at when they fail. Like for example; in one episode, Jackie, who is incredibly close to Roseanne, has a total fit where she says that Roseanne is a bad mother and all her kids are failures... But why this is so weird is because it's literally because she gave a kid a cookie.
It seems unbelievable that someone as close to her as Jackie would get so extreme over something so nonsensical. It's strictly to cause a rift, and to again laugh when Jackie can't even get through an insult without dragging out a five minute long 'she's a moron who can't talk' joke.
See, because Jackie turned into something of a fool. Giggling and babbling for the camera, cause conflict when it needed it, barely able to stand on her own. She also never seemed to be doing anything. In the beginning, Jackie had jobs, had hobbies, went out a lot, and lived a full life. By the end, Jackie did nothing except appear when plot demanded it. She no longer had any outside life.
So how does this apply to Peridot? Well, Peridot could easily drop into this same trap. Consider this; when Peridot first started getting used to the group she was offensive, unafraid to hurt their feelings, and distant. She got closer to them over time. The Amethyst comparison is most important as 'Too Far' was a big character moment for Peridot. Peridot learned she could hurt people's feelings and that it made her feel bad too. Or feel 'small'.
By 'Kindergarten Kid', Peridot slipped back into her old behavior. She knows Amethyst is upset, Steven mentioned it before, but still is unashamed of talking against the Crystal Gems like their relationship has suddenly deteriorated. While one may say it's just Peridot 'being Peridot', I could see this going in a bad direction. Right now it's fine, but imagine this:
Peridot appears in episodes strictly to crack jokes about the other Gems and makes a fool out of herself. She starts throwing bigger and bigger tantrums whenever she's shown, incapable of being able to keep an even tone at all. She also loses the rest of her intelligence and is barely able to do anything without Steven, Lapis, or the Crystal Gems guiding her. Whenever she's around she's followed by a constant slew of 'shipping' and 'Camp Pining Hearts' references, even when it doesn't apply. Her statements are all jokes, unable to converse without a punchline being shoed in. All the while, Peridot becomes less and less competent.
And then flanderization sets in. It's so easy, you know? And it's not like Steven Universe is 'so good' that it can't unintentionally do this. Guess what other shows were great, but eventually suffered from flanderization; SpongeBob, Simpsons, and Roseanne. All of these shows did have a time where they were great, but then characters started to falter. SpongeBob, Patrick, Homer Simpson, Ned Flanders, Mark, Jackie...
Do I think that everyone on Steven Universe will fall into the trap? No. I think, at the worst case, Peridot's character will simply suffer from this pattern of writing. Do I think she will become flanderized? I don't know. I mean, I thought SpongeBob was great, I though Homer Simpson was a decent father, I thought Jackie was the cool one- Peridot could join this list.
Or maybe the episode just reverted her for the Looney Tunes reference... I use reference lightly, because when you do the exact same thing it's not exactly a reference. I don't know, but I hope that Peridot doesn't continue this trend or we might be heading down the same path that we've seen many times before. Even with Peridot demoted to a side character, it would be a shame...
And for the love of stars, would it kill you to give Peridot an actual weapon again?!
